It's Whom You Least Suspect

Sometimes I get the feeling that Our Lord had a soft spot in His heart for tax collectors. God knows, no one else did...or does...or ever shall for that matter. Back in the First Century, tax collectors were usually viewed as an unsavoury, criminal lot who liked to overcharge and skim the proceeds. After all, H&R Block isn't a charity, and neither were they. Even today, when government officials do not actually have the ease of putting their hands in the till, they still represent the government which has its hand in our pockets.

The nerve.

And yet Our Lord in multiple places seemingly shows them mercy.

What is happening here, as we see in today's Gospel for Mass (Lk. 18.9-14), Jesus is not saying tax collectors are great people and fun at a party in the Kingdom of God. Instead, he is using the example of the tax collector, one of the most despised professions in Judah (right along with prostitution) to raise an example of true humility and what true reconciliation and justification looks like. It is not respectable people dislocating their shoulders patting themselves on the back for not being despicable, it is despicable people honestly looking at themselves, resolving to do better, and asking for God's mercy to help.

It is the case of Levi, who is better known as St. Matthew, the Apostle who was a tax collector, turned his back on it, and eventually had a whole Gospel attributed to his authorship.

It is the case of Zacchaeus, who heard the Lord's message, and paid restitution to all whom he defrauded.

It is the case of all the tax collectors and prostitutes who turned to God's mercy when confronted with the Gospel and found that same mercy. Jesus turned to the religious authorities of the day and attested that tax collectors and prostitutes were entering the Kingdom of Heaven ahead of them.

It is this case where Jesus shows how that happened, how the lowest of society got the jump on the respectable and found a higher place in God's eyes.

Maybe it would be best for us if we were to remember that when we look down on someone else.